


Into the blue

by honeybearbee



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - World War II, Genocide, Holocaust, M/M, Torture, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 18:46:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11583963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeybearbee/pseuds/honeybearbee
Summary: The calendar said June 1943, but it felt like 2023 to Rodney.





	Into the blue

**Author's Note:**

> WARNINGS: Mention of torture, genocide and eugenics. This story includes references to the Holocaust, which may disturb or offend some readers.
> 
> WWII AU, but like a complete shift with reality. 
> 
> BETA-ED BY: thinkme_naive and batdina, any remaining mistakes are mine.

The calendar said June 1943, but it felt like 2023 to Rodney. The Second World War had been going on far too long in Rodney’s opinion. He had been living on Atlantis by the time the war started, and since it was an international mission, the city and its inhabitants had been pulled into the war. The governments of the Allied countries were terrified of the Nazis, so when the Wraith and Goa’uld sided with them, tensions rose. And so did the attacks by the Axis powers.

Rodney stared at the ceiling and watched as some dust fell onto his desk. The walls shook for a minute and he heard a boom. More dust fell all around the room. Rodney rolled onto his side and pulled the covers over his head. He couldn’t sleep, especially with all the bombs exploding every hour. He figured it was a tactic the Goa’uld had taught the Germans. It was a good one. Since the Germans bombed every hour, everyone on base was sleep deprived and tense. An English officer had nearly beaten a French Scientist over a piece of bread. _It’s good bread, but not that good_ , Rodney mused.

Rodney sighed and flipped the covers back. _I might as well get up._ He pulled on his uniform and headed to his lab. The lights glowed around him as he walked the halls. Most of the others in the base were trying to sleep, but Rodney knew a lost cause when he saw one. Once he was in his lab, Rodney walked over to the coffee maker and switched it on. _If I can’t sleep, I can at least get some of these projects out of the way._

Rodney rolled up his sleeves and got to work on the first project, a teleporting device that could be used by one person. It would eliminate the need for a ship to hover and be vulnerable to attack, at least that’s what the Scientists hoped it could do. The Ancient technology was still so new to them, even if they had had it for three years. New pieces of technology were constantly being found; it was kind of annoying to Rodney. Once he figured out how one thing worked, there were twelve more waiting to be worked on. At least it kept him busy working and not busy thinking about the past.

****

John walked into the lab and found Rodney bent over the newest piece of technology.

“Rodney,” he sighed. “You should be asleep. We have a mission at 06:00.”

“You should go to bed too,” muttered Rodney. He sat up and stretched. “Why aren’t you in bed?”

“Nightmares,” John said succinctly. He turned away from Rodney and fiddled with something.

Rodney nodded. “Yeah, me too.” He scowled when he saw John playing with the, whatever it was. He grabbed it from the other man and gently placed it on the table next to him.

“You do not have nightmares,” John scoffed.

“I do too! I went through a hell of a lot, you know!”

“I know, but you don’t have them.”

“Do.”

“Not.”

“Do!”

“No you don’t!”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“You can’t have nightmares if you don’t sleep.”

Rodney was silent. He picked up the thing and began taking it apart. John walked over to him and took it away.

“I can hear you get up every night. We do share a room. And soon a bed,” John smirked.

Rodney’s head whipped to look at John. “What?” he squeaked.

“The Military is taking all the current beds and melting them down to make weapons.”

“What does that have to do with us sharing a bed?”

“There’s going to be one bed per room. So people who share a room get a queen size and everyone else gets a twin size.”

Rodney stared at him. “We aren’t getting beds are we?”

John shook his head. “Cots. From the Great War.”

“Fuck,” Rodney huffed.

John laughed. “Come on, let’s go to the mess hall. Maybe they have some left over coffee and cake.”

Rodney nodded and put his things away. He set the thing they had both played with in his corner, so no one else could touch it. He and John walked out of the labs and down the hall. Occasionally, their hands brushed as they walked.

**** 

The team was sitting around the conference table and listening to Colonel Caldwell.

“The Germans and the Wraith,” he stated, “are holing up here.” He pointed to a place on the map. “We want to know what it is.” He turned to Teyla.

Next to her, Ronon growled. Teyla placed a hand on his arm. “I shall do what is necessary.”

****

In the infirmary, Teyla closed her eyes and tried to connect with the Wraith.

_”Breed them?” cried a Nazi General. “Are you insane?”_

_The Wraith Queen hissed. “If you expect us to stay alive and eat your enemies, I suggest you breed them.”_

_“We want to eradicate the Jews, not make them more populous!”_

_Hitler raised his hand to silence the General. “It is them or us. Ten females and ten males will be set aside for breeding purposes until they can no longer work for their lives. We must keep our allies alive after all.” He nodded his head at the Wraith Queen, who nodded back._

_“But...” the General protested._

_“One more word and I’ll feed you to her,” Hitler snapped._

_The Queen showed all her teeth at the General. He averted his eyes and sat down._

Teyla gasped as she opened her eyes. “The Nazis, they plan on sacrificing the Jewish people to the Wraith. And breeding them.”

Caldwell swore, while Elizabeth raced to inform her superiors.

“We have to stop them,” said Ronon with a glint in his eyes.

John nodded and looked at Rodney. Rodney stared back. “That camp, it has something we want. Two birds, one stone.”

****

Rodney lay still in his new bed. He could feel John breathing next to him. Rodney tried to go to sleep, but every time his eyes shot open. He could still see Gaul, begging for his help.

“Rodney,” John said suddenly. “You actually need to sleep. You can’t save the world if you’re sleep deprived.”

“I did it before, I could try again,” Rodney muttered mulishly.

“I don’t think that argument would go over well.”

Rodney huffed, but closed his eyes again. He felt John relax and fall asleep. Soon, Rodney fell too asleep to the sound of bombs hitting the base.

****

John sat up blearily and rubbed his eyes. He saw that Rodney wasn’t next to him or anywhere in the room. John decided to check out the bathroom before looking for Rodney in his lab.

John saw Rodney curled up in the shower. “Rodney…” he whispered. He walked over, grabbed a towel, and helped his friend up.

“I can’t help it John. Every time I close my eyes I see Brendan. Then I see my captors. It hurt John,” Rodney said with a tremor in his voice.

“I know it did.” John dried Rodney off and took him to bed.

“How do you get them to stop?”

John paused as he got into his side of the bed. “You don’t, not really. They are always there, waiting for a bad day. But, most of the time, they stay down.” He turned to Rodney. “You just recently escaped from captivity, I got out a long time ago so mine have been with me for awhile.”

“The Great War scarred everyone.”

John said nothing as he climbed into bed. 

“You saved me,” Rodney stated.

“What?”

“You saved me from the enemy. I didn’t escape.”

“It was a little of both, all right?”

Rodney nodded disbelievingly.

John rolled his eyes and said, “Someday they won’t be as bad. When you have a nightmare, wake me up.”

“Why?” Rodney was suspicious of John’s newfound openness.

“Because I love you, idiot.”

“Oh. OH!” Rodney waved his hands. “I love…I mean…of course…I don’t, hey!” He poked John in the chest. “I’m not an idiot. I’m just socially awkward.”

John raised an eyebrow and rolled on top of Rodney. “Don’t you have something to say back?”

“Huh? Oh, yes. I love you as well, you do math for me. Now kiss me already.”

John laughed and did just that.

****

As they lay snuggling, Rodney asked, “Why now?”

John was silent for a long time. Rodney waited by playing with John’s chest hair.

“A lot of reasons,” John finally replied while he stroked Rodney’s arm. “It seemed like a good idea at the time, I was worried about you, and really, you never know what could happen in war. I’d rather have one night with you than none.”

Rodney scowled and tugged on John’s chest hair. “Ow!” he complained. John rubbed his chest and glared. “What was that for?”

“Shut up,” snapped Rodney. “We’re having more than one night together. I’m not going to let any moronic Aliens, the even more moronic Military, or the disgusting Nazis keep us from being together forever.”

“Forever, huh?” John smirked.

“If you try to leave me now, I’ll…I’ll do something horrible!” Rodney declared.

John chuckled and pulled Rodney closer. “Go to sleep. We have to save some people tomorrow.”

****

Rodney had to swallow back bile as he and the other teams walked through Belzec. The Nazis had abandoned it earlier in the year, but when the Wraith needed food, they had started it up again. He had thought that the regular means of killing and torture were horrific, but those had nothing on the lifeless bodies of Wraith victims. Some hardened war veterans were throwing up at the sight of the pile of bodies in the middle of the camp, where Rodney was standing.

“Are the Nazis mental?” asked Lorne with shock. He had seen a lot in the war, but this was just too much.

“Obviously,” replied Rodney. He looked around and saw the same look on everyone’s face: shock, disgust, horror, and outrage. Rodney saw some of the more religious soldiers and scientists performing any prayer they could think of, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, etc., over the dead bodies. Rodney looked at John, who was standing next to him, and bumped his shoulder. “Come on. I think I know where the energy is coming from.”

John nodded, gathered up Teyla and Ronon, told Lorne to disperse the other units and look for any survivors, and then led the way to the main building of the camp.

****

“Rodney, are you sure it’s here?” John asked. Teyla and Ronon were covering the rear as Rodney fiddled with the door.

The door was the bane of his existence. He knew there was something behind it; Rodney just couldn’t get it open. He sighed and rested his head on it.

“Maybe,” Ronon said slowly. “It needs a password or something.”

Rodney snapped his fingers. “An ‘or something’! John, get me a Nazi.”

“What for?” John cocked his hips and rested his hands on his P-90.

“I don’t have time for flirting. One of those Nazi bastards is going to open this door or else.”

****

Rodney repeated himself to the Nazi commander. “Open that door or else.”

“Or else what?” the commander sneered.

“Ronon will hurt you.”

Ronon glowered from behind Rodney, but the commander just scoffed. “He’s no bigger than my first instructor.”

Rodney blinked and looked back at John, who shrugged. Even Ronon seemed surprised. Teyla rolled her eyes and snapped up the commander’s hand. She bent it backwards and pulled his arm behind his back.

“You will open that door or else I will rip your arm off and use it to activate the panel. And if this is not the correct arm, I will rip off the other one,” she said calmly.

The commander had started sweating, but said nothing. Teyla twisted harder. “All right!” the man shrieked.

She let him go and he opened the door. John shoved him at the marines. “Take him back to his cell.”

****

Rodney, Radek, and the other scientists set up shop as soon as they entered the room. The Military waited outside the door.

“Look, don’t touch anything, all right?” Rodney yelled. “We don’t know what’s booby-trapped and what’s not.”

The others nodded and carefully maneuvered around a massive pedestal in the middle of the room that was strangely silent. Rodney walked the circumference of the pedestal and saw that it had a huge blast mark in it. “Shit,” he muttered. He got his bag out and prepared to fix it. Just as Rodney plugged his computer into the pedestal, he heard shooting.

“Rodney! The Wraith are here!” Radek screeched.

“I can hear that!”

“Rodney!” John yelled over the gunfire. “The ships can’t get a beam through, there seems to be a shield over this damn camp.”

Radek and Rodney both looked at the pedestal. Radek dropped his belongings and hurried over to help Rodney get the pedestal up and running.

****

Rodney cursed as a Wraith blast flew by him. “Damn it! Keep them away until we get it plugged in!” he yelled to John.

John flipped him off and went back to defending the room. Rodney chuckled and turned to Radek. “Well?”

“Almost, almost…there!” Radek jumped away and Rodney punched the only button the pedestal had.

Nothing happened.

“Isn’t something supposed to happen, Rodney?” John yelled.

“Yes!” Rodney stared at the screen that was hovering over the pedestal, it was written in German. He tried to block out all the noise. His eyes scanned the German until he saw what he needed. Rodney snapped his fingers at one of the soldiers. “You! Go replace the Colonel. John. Here. Now.”

The soldier took up John’s position as John raced over to Rodney.

“What?” John sounded stressed, which Rodney totally got, but didn’t need right now.

“Hit the damn button,” Rodney commanded.

John slammed his hand down on the button and there was blessed silence.

****

Rodney and John were in their room, relaxing. John was nursing some cuts and bruises, and Rodney was fussing over him.

“Knock it off,” John muttered.

“Shut up, you like it. I wonder what the Asgard did with the Wraith.”

“Spaced them, probably.”

Rodney tried to be horrified, but couldn’t make himself. “I’m surprised they left the Nazis.”

“We have an agreement with them. They get the Aliens and we get the humans,” John leaned back on the bed and closed his eyes.

Rodney said nothing as he put up the medical supplies. Personally, he thought both groups should be spaced. “With that ZPM, which should have enough power to get back us to Atlantis.”

John sighed. “I miss home.”

“Me too.”

“They’ll probably make me fly it into battle and make as many copies of her as possible.”

“They can try. There can be only one Atlantis, but the blueprints for ships and weapons would be helpful right now.”

“Yeah.”

Rodney curled up next to John on the bed. “Someday this will all be over and we can take our home, uh, home.”

John snorted. “You have such a way with words, Rodney.”

“It is something I work at,” he grinned up at John.

John grinned back and kissed him. “Why don’t you work on something else?”

Rodney agreed and kissed John back.

****

Two years later in 1945, World War Two ended. The Nazis were out of power, the Goa’uld were decimated and the Wraith had jumped back to the Pegasus Galaxy. The Asgard updated all of Earth’s ships and Earth was preparing to go fight the Wraith.

John, Rodney, Teyla, Ronon and many others were selected to go to the Pegasus Galaxy and continue the fight.

They were just glad to be going home, together and alive.


End file.
